| Somewhere
in
Vietnam 18 April 1967
Dear Jim, Bev and Monique, Well, I finally got my wish! I am out of III MAF. I am north of Chu Lai on hill 35 with the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines. I am in mortars now so will get a new MOS of 0341. You couldn't begin to imagine the change in living. I love it here tho! It is great. There is no reville in the morning and we run around in cut offs and tennis shoes. There is no electricity up here so we have lamps that burn diesel fuel. We live down in the ground in a "houch" made of sandbags and sleep on cots. The roof leaks a bit but it isn't bad at all. Regiment is down the hill so we go down there to eat and shower. They have a club too of course and a small PX even. I won't be here long cuz we are packed and ready to move at a moments notice. The Army is taking over here and we are going north. I expect we will be south of DaNang where all the action is. It is getting noisy out now as it does at nite. There are two Battalions of artillery down in the flats below. Lt. Wells was there with 4/11 but they left today. We expect to get hit tonite or tomorrow nite. The VC are expected to try and overrun us up here. They tried it in Jan but got blown away by mortars. I have an AR-16 now. They sure are light so we carry two & 1/2 times the ammo as with the M-14. I have 260 rounds and it feels like nothing. I'll be humming when we move tho. I'll be carrying ammo for the 81's plus all my gear. Our seabags are staged over at battalion for shipping. I miss you all brother. I'm getting shorter tho almost 5 months in country now. I love you all and think of you often. Love, your bud Alan Write! |